Improvement in sewing-machines



T. K. KEETH.

Sewing-Machines. v

NO. 139,962. I Patentedlune17,1873.

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UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIOE.

THOMAS K. KEITH, OF HAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SEWING-MACHINES. I

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 139,962, dated June 17, 1873; application filed May 23, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS K. KEITH, of Haverhill, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Sewing-Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention SllffiOlBDlJ to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

In using sewing-machines it is often desirable to measure the amount of thread drawn from a spool, or to test the length of thread upon a spool, especially in using spool-silk.

My invention relates to a means of accomplishing such measurement; and consists in combining with a sewing-machine mechanism, and with a tension-wheel placed between the spool and the needle-bar, a meter mechanism or a train of gearing, by which, by the rotations of the tension-wheel, the consequent length of thread running through it is registered.

The drawing represents a plan and side elevation of a sewing-machine mechanism embodying my invention.

a denotes the arm, at the front end of which is the head and face plate, between which the needle-bar b plays vertically. c d denote the ordinary guides, through which the thread e passes. f denotes the spool, g, the spool-.

At opposite sides of this wheel are eyes k, through which the thread runs, the thread between said eyes passing over the wheel it between its corrugated flanges t'. The wheel h is fixed on a shaft, Z, which passes through a box, m, said shaft having a gear that makes one wheel of a train of gears contained within the box, the various arbors of the gears extending through an index-plate,n, the arbors having index-fin gers that are regularly moved by the gearing as the wheel rotates, the respective index-fingers moving around the respective index-circles of the index-plate. The first index is shown as denoting the number of single yard-s up to six. The second denotes the number of yards from six to forty-eight, and so on through the train.

As the thread is drawn from the spool by the needle, and runs through the groove in the wheel h it turns the wheel, and the rotation' of the wheel actuates the gearing, so that the thread is accurately measured, as will be readily understood.

I claim- In combination with a sewing-machine mechanism, a mechanism, substantially as described, for registering the length of thread.

THOMAS K. KEITH. Witnesses:

- F. G. GREELEY,

GILMAN GREELEY. 

